Help geting rid of foul odor coming from bilge

N

nlib49

New Member
May 15, 2011
18
Middle River & Chesapeake Bay
Boat Info
1997 Sea Ray Sundancer 270DA
Engines
454 MPI Mercruiser w/Bravo III
I have a '97 270 Sundancer. I am getting a foul odor that I thought was coming from the holding tank. I have replaced the vent filter, the hose to the vacuum generator and the hose to the holding tank. I use holding tank chemicals regularly. I wiped down all components of the Sealand vacuflush system with clean cotton rags -no odor could be detected on the rags. I do not appear to have any no sewage leaks or vacuum leaks in the system and there is no smell present in the bathroom coming from the head itself. The fresh water system is clean and the I keep the tank pumped out regularly. I just throughly cleaned the bilge and bilge pumps and removed all standing water from the bilge. When I remove the pump out cap - no odors are noticeable. Yet the odor is still emitting from the bilge area. Any suggestions?
thanks,
Nick
Island Dreams
 
carterchapman said:
Batteries topped up? Hydrogen Sulfide gas from plates overcharging?
Click to expand...
Thanks Carter
The smell is different than that, but I did think to check that. The system volts remains at 14.2 while operating the vessel, batteries show no signs of bulging and no rotten egg odor (per my nose) in that area. My boat is stored high and dry, the smell continues to build in the bilge area even while the boat is just sitting with batteries switch off and no shore power, no usage of fresh water or the head.
This has me stumped. I have emailed SeaLand (Domestic Corp) makers of the vacuflush head system and followed their suggestions- no help. I also have stopped at a SeaRay distributor and talked to their service manager. He suggested the hose change and to verify that someone did not accidently turn the switch to discharge overboard with the seacock in the closed position, backing sewage up in the hose- which also was a negative. Also talked to several other marine repair facilities who were no help at all and basically did not give me the time of day.

Thanks for your reply
Nick
Island dreams
 
With the age of your boat it is possible that the hoses are at the end of their life. Is it possible they're leaching through or do you see any signs of hoses going bad?
 
If the head checks out thoroughly and this came on suddenly for no reason, I'd guess some critter crawled in and died in a corner. Do you have mice in the area?

The suggestion would be to try the assumption it's NOT any of the systems, and sniff out other areas to see if you can track it down.

Rich
 
Nehalennia said:
With the age of your boat it is possible that the hoses are at the end of their life. Is it possible they're leaching through or do you see any signs of hoses going bad?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply
I just replaced the main two hoses-to the vacuum generator and from the vacuum gen to the holding tank. No change.

Thanks
Nick
Island Dreams
 
Thanks Rich
I have inspected the bilge that is accessible and thoroughly cleaned it with a bathroom cleaner that kills mold and has bleach added. The boat sits on a cradle and requires a ladder to get aboard. I don't think I have a dead critter, but I'll check again.
Thanks
Nick Island Dreams
 
Sweet tank by Groco. Fixed the odor that I had!
 
Any chance you have funky water in the shower box or one of the sumps? Also I had a really nasty smell coming from the hot water heater when I got my boat. When they "took" the boat back from the PO, I think the water system didnt get cleaned out and either they or the surveyor may have cooked some funky water in the hot water heater by accident.

Also, have you checked the charcoal filter on your head system in the bilge? If you overfill the holding tank by accident you can back some sewage up into that filter... which causes a really bad smell too.

James
 
Is it a sewage smell? Or a rancid rotting flesh smell? Possible that a critter has made a nest in engine vents? That seems to be an issue here at my marina for the boats that are dry stacked.
 
JimFromMD said:
Any chance you have funky water in the shower box or one of the sumps? Also I had a really nasty smell coming from the hot water heater when I got my boat. When they "took" the boat back from the PO, I think the water system didnt get cleaned out and either they or the surveyor may have cooked some funky water in the hot water heater by accident.

Also, have you checked the charcoal filter on your head system in the bilge? If you overfill the holding tank by accident you can back some sewage up into that filter... which causes a really bad smell too.

James
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply
I changed the holding tank vent filter. I had that nasty smell from the hot water heater at the beginning of the season but after flushing the fresh water system several times with a chlorine beach solution the fresh water system hot and cold is odor free.
Nick
Island Dreams
 
sdarc said:
Is it a sewage smell? Or a rancid rotting flesh smell? Possible that a critter has made a nest in engine vents? That seems to be an issue here at my marina for the boats that are dry stacked.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.
I will check out the bilge vents -had not thought of that.

Nick
Island Dreams
 
had same issue, all hoses need to be replaced not just 2 main ones , thought i could get away with only a copule of hoses, but once I did them all smell went bye bye
 
larrytbull said:
had same issue, all hoses need to be replaced not just 2 main ones , thought i could get away with only a copule of hoses, but once I did them all smell went bye bye
Click to expand...


Hi,
So I just ordered some of this product. Someone else here on the board was talking about it. I'm hoping that it will free up my holding tank sensor so that the guage will work. One thing it specifically talks about is cleaning out the sewage lines and removing foul odors. Might be worth a shot. I'll report back as to how it goes with my tank. The posting on here said it worked for someone else on their sensor.

http://www.marinesan.com/Noflex_digestor_sewage_treatment_p/noflex.htm
 
JimFromMD said:
Hi,
So I just ordered some of this product. Someone else here on the board was talking about it. I'm hoping that it will free up my holding tank sensor so that the guage will work. One thing it specifically talks about is cleaning out the sewage lines and removing foul odors. Might be worth a shot. I'll report back as to how it goes with my tank. The posting on here said it worked for someone else on their sensor.

http://www.marinesan.com/Noflex_digestor_sewage_treatment_p/noflex.htm
Click to expand...

Here are the other threads on the board
http://clubsearay.com/showthread.ph...ck-Tank-High-Pressure-Spayer?highlight=noflex
http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/50048-Recommended-Odor-Treatment?p=563330#post563330
http://clubsearay.com/showthread.php/47454-Toilet-Problem?highlight=noflex
 
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